A state agency’s failure to assert a sovereign immunity defense during its trial on an Americans with Disabilities Act claim does not amount to a waiver of immunity, a divided New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled.

The New Jersey State Police did not give up the defense of sovereign immunity by waiting to assert that defense until after a jury awarded $1.06 million in a state trooper’s disability accommodation case, the court said Tuesday in the 5-2 decision, Royster v. New Jersey State Police.